“Lori Benton gives us seasons in her debut novel Burning Sky. Seasons of planting corn, beans and pumpkins as backdrops to the ripening and challenges of lives working through chaos after a war and a terrible personal tragedy. [She] gives us seasons of the journey through loss, risk, family and love.”
—JANE KIRKPATRICK, award-winning author of One Glorious Ambition
Three Are Even Better
“You’ll be planting soon, then?”
[Neil had] expected a simple yes, but Willa cut a length of thread and passed it through the eye of her store-bought needle, and said, “I will plant the corn first, and the squash and pumpkins to shade the ground. When the stalks are tall enough to bear them, I will plant the climbing beans.”
It was the Indian way of planting, three crops in one field. Dr. Franklin had explained its merits during a memorable conversation just after Neil’s admittance into the Philosophical Society…
He felt a small thrill of eagerness, anticipating seeing the method implemented…
—from Burning Sky Copyright 2013 Lori Benton
Planting was meant to be a time of joy, a singing time for the women and children of the clans. [Willa] had no children to catch the fish or bang the gourds to keep the birds from stealing the seeds and kernels after sowing. And in summer, when the bean pods came and the corn ripened and the squash vines blossomed, there would be no children to help guard the crop from the deer, raccoon, and rabbit that would steal it.
—from Burning Sky Copyright 2013 Lori Benton
I’ll confess that it took reading the insightful endorsement from Jane Kirkpatrick, quoted at the start of this post, to make me see that I had subconsciously layered in that vibrant picture of what Willa’s life could be… with the constant application of courage, love, and healing.
It was growing all the while just a stone’s throw from her cabin door. Corn, beans, and squash, reaching up together for the sun.
In that way Willa and I took this journey together.
A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 New Living Translation
I read this last night and got really, really sad.
Why?
When fire and plants mix, it does not go well.